


Shuffle Time

by Raaj



Category: Persona 5
Genre: M/M, loosely inspired by pre-p3 games letting other characters have multiple personas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-08-05 18:05:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16372475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raaj/pseuds/Raaj
Summary: A routine trip to Mementos causes a flurry of excitement for the Thieves when it turns out that Joker isn't their only wild card, with Skull accidentally gaining a tag-along.  But excitement isn't all it stirs up.





	1. Does Skull Is Wildcard?

"Any guys you want in particular?"

 

"Surprise me," Ren answered, his eyes closed.

 

Ryuji grinned and hovered by the door, ready for when Morgana rammed the next group of shadows.  They were on their last Mementos target of the day, cruising back up Chemdah to take care of a less notorious target as a wind-down now that they'd cleared out two tougher cases.  Apparently Ren was trying to prove to someone that fate wasn't fixed, and in this case it meant they needed to steal the heart of an abusive boyfriend. The fate argument didn't interest Ryuji, but stopping a shitty abuser had him keyed up, and Ren needed a break from fighting for a bit.  They relied on his whole 'wild card' trick a little too much, honestly--not that their leader ever complained, but the exhaustion had started becoming noticeable on longer excursions, and Ryuji had persuaded him to let his right-hand man take point when they just needed to clear a path through small fry.

 

The shadows were getting close, but they were still turned away.  Unaware of Makoto bearing down on them, quietly but steadily accelerating.  "Get ready, Skull," she warned him, and he gave a quick, flippant salute for her to catch in the rearview mirror because yeah, he knew, they'd done this loads of times before.  He rose from his seat, bracing himself for the imminent collision with one hand on Ann's seat in front and the other against the rear door. The crash still rocked him, it always did, but it bowled the shadows right over and Morgana flung all his doors open and in a flash, Ryuji launched himself into the thick of things, Seiten Taisei looming over him as he raised his pipe.  Yusuke and Haru joined the fray only seconds later, but the delay was long enough for Ryuji to have taken out two of the shadows and picked out the one he'd offer up to Ren. The guy had a habit of collecting masks, even if he seemed to never use most of them in combat, and Ryuji made a point of always leaving one ready to be taken.

 

"Yo, Joker!" he called as the other two Thieves cleaned up.  Haru was vicious with her persona, considering how new she was still.  Ryuji couldn't look back, too busy keeping his shotgun steady on the doglike lion snarling in front of him, but he could hear the approaching footfalls of Ren's pointy-toed boots that would have looked silly on anyone else but somehow worked for Joker.  "Got an old buddy of yours. Been a while since we saw him, ain’t it?"

 

"Shiisaa... don't think he's shown up in Mementos before."  Ren was casual as he stopped right behind Ryuji. "Too bad, I don't have a use for him right now.  You want to make this worth our while, Shiisaa, how about you cough up some yen and clear out?"

 

Oh, right.  The others _had_ been saying he needed to remember to collect yen from the shadows more often when he took point.  It was a good idea to hold one up for cash for a change. Ryuji found himself a little disappointed, though.  "Awww, sure you don't want this guy, Joker? I remember him!"

 

"Me...remember..." the lion growled.

 

"He was good!  With the lightning and the--he had something else, didn't he?"

 

"Frei.  Nuclear."

 

"Yeah, the nuclear."

 

"I've got others with that now.  And we have Queen."

 

"Was I an afterthought?" Makoto asked, and Ryuji could hear Ren's trenchcoat rustling as he turned.  Probably to give her a look begging "please don't shove a frei down my throat". Ryuji couldn't know for sure, as he was still watching the weird dog-lion, who was returning his gaze with a sudden intensity.  Weird. He had kind of liked this shadow, or maybe he'd just liked how proud Ren had been when he first used it. But it was Ren's call.

 

And then the lion said, "You have mask...you and me...don't worry, be happy!", turned into a blue light, and Ryuji flinched, rocking back on his feet.  He hastily lowered his shotgun and grabbed at his skull mask with his left hand--the thing was burning, had he gotten hit? Was he bleeding? But his glove didn’t have any blood on it when he pulled his hand away.

 

“The eff was that?” he asked, bewildered.  He started to turn to Ren, and okay, _something_ had definitely happened, because behind the domino mask was the most wide-eyed expression he’d ever seen Ren make.  “Joker--”

 

“Skull, stop moving,” Yusuke ordered.  “I must capture everyone’s faces.”

 

Ryuji was not known for following directions, especially when he was freaking out about something.  He whirled on Yusuke, not surprised at all to see the artist had whipped out his sketchbook at an inappropriate moment.  “I ain’t gonna stand still when it just hit me--!”

 

Everyone else was staring at him like Ren had.  Ann snapped out of it to frown at him, her voice on edge.   “Wait, did it hit you?  Because it looked like the same thing every shadow does when they go in Joker’s mask.  Didn’t it, Joker?”

 

“Yeah,” Ren said.  “Skull, focus on Shiisaa for a minute.”

 

“What?  No, dude, it’s not--I’m not--”

 

“Humor me.”

 

Ryuji gaped at Ren.  He wasn’t a complete idiot, he knew what Ren was thinking, but he couldn’t have multiple personas because he wasn’t like Ren.  Someone had to be pretty smart to juggle all the personas Ren did, right? Ryuji was a lot closer to the bottom of the class than the top, a complete opposite of Ren.  And he wasn’t especially talented any other way. He’d had track, but that was in the past, and--

 

\--But he was thinking of Shiisaa anyway, because he couldn’t _not_ think about Shiisaa now.  And it’d be cool if Ren was right, wouldn’t it?  If Ryuji could be adaptable the same way Ren was--ever changing personas, not letting enemies pin him down, always reliable--and suddenly all the breath whooshed out of the blond because he could feel both of them in his mind.  Seiten Taisei and Shiisaa, both ready to be called up. “Holy _shit_.  How’s that possible?”

 

“That’s what I want to know!” Morgana exclaimed.  “Joker was an exception! Now you can do it?”

 

“Looks like Skull’s an exception too,” Ren said, and the way he was smiling was everything.  In track team, you still ran alone, and the team could be competitive: who sprinted the fastest, who had the best endurance, who trained the hardest.  Nothing wrong with competition, but sometimes it got a little intense. Get too close to the next guy’s time, and he’d push himself twice as hard to make sure he stayed ahead.  But Ren’s smile made it clear he didn’t even feel remotely threatened by someone else having the same wild card talent as him. If anything, he looked--excited, and Ryuji couldn’t have stopped himself from grinning back if he’d tried.

 

“Hey, don’t just smile, you dorks,” Futaba said, tapping away on her keyboard.  “Skull, summon him! I want to run some analysis.”

 

“Oh, yeah!  Show us!” Ann said, and Haru nodded with encouragement of her own, and Ryuji felt his face flushing because when was the last time he’d had all eyes on him like this?

 

Man, the way Makoto was staring at him was going to make him sweat bullets if she didn’t ease up soon.  If he’d gotten that dissecting look in school, he would have thought he was on the fast track to expulsion again.  Her biker chick gear only made her expression seem harsher. Morgana looked just as intense, but at least Ryuji had a pretty good idea what his deal was.

 

“Let’s stay focused.  We still have a target to take care of,” Ren said, cutting the conversation short.  Ryuji winced, but then his friend kept going. “...Once we’ve finished, we’ll go back down a couple floors if everyone’s still good.  We have a wild card to test out.”

 

It was a good thing they usually left the easiest target for last, just in case they were starting to lose focus.  They were definitely losing focus today, nearly everyone wanting to ask Ryuji questions after they started driving again.  Even Morgana, though his question was abrupt and incredulous through the van speakers: _“How?”_  Futaba’s were way more detailed and distracting--had he changed his routine lately?  He didn’t think so--and Ren turned in his seat to ask her to put it on pause.  Target first, then analysis. Ann got away with a couple questions of her own, mostly because they were casually delivered and easy to answer: Had his day gone really well?  Maybe he’d had an amazing breakfast? The answers were his day had gone okay, nothing too noteworthy though, and his mom’s breakfasts were always good but he didn’t think the answer was _food_ , Ann (Ren gave a little chuckle at the exchange).  Haru didn’t ask any questions directly, but she wondered aloud, hesitantly, still so shy as the newest member, if perhaps it wasn’t so much that wild cards were an exception; perhaps Ren had simply arrived at the ability unusually quick.  That one got a thoughtful hum from their leader.

 

“Maybe you should all give it a try.”

 

Morgana’s engine revved, and Ryuji could see the way Makoto’s fingers drummed on the steering wheel as she made the next turn, her eyes briefly darting to him in the rearview mirror.  Oh.  Makoto’s deal wasn’t that much different from Morgana’s, then.  Here was the competitive side. Which wasn’t a bad thing by itself; it’d be cool if they could take new personas too.  Totally cool. The more choices everyone had, the better for the team as a whole, right?

 

But...he sort of hoped they wouldn’t figure out how to do it right away.  Let him have today. Hard to imagine Queen _not_ mastering whatever she set her mind to, though.

 

At least Yusuke didn’t seem the least bit interested in outdoing him.  Dude was fighting his motion sickness in an effort to flesh out his earlier sketch.  He’d definitely gotten everyone’s faces, though they were in his more abstract style, and Ryuji noticed--

 

“Hey, where’d I go?”  Where he should have been was only a few stray marks and a bunch of erasing.

 

“You moved.”  And then, more patiently: “If you have the time later to model for me, it would be much appreciated.  Or perhaps I should depict the moment more figuratively? A bolt of lightning strikes in the midst of a group, and all are stunned by what it reveals.”

 

“...The lightning sounds cool,” Ryuji said. Both the way he’d described it, and the fact that it wouldn’t require standing still.  Ryuji knew well enough from Ann and Ren how exacting Yusuke could be about his models holding a pose. Lightning was not just badass but fitting, for him and Seiten Taisei and Shiisaa.  “Oh, Joker. I know Shiisaa’s weaker, but would he be worth using if the target’s weak to nuclear?”

 

The look Ren gave him in return was confused.

 

“You know, with Frei?”

 

“...Check with Shiisaa, Skull.  Does it have Frei?”

 

It took a minute of poking thoughts at Shiisaa to be sure the persona had told him all its abilities. Frei didn’t seem to be one of them.   “What the eff?” Ryuji muttered. “Yours had it.”

 

“I had to make it special,” Ren told him with a cocky little Joker smirk, like he knew things Ryuji didn’t.  Which, yeah, he absolutely did.

 

“What, y’mean you stared at the wall extra hard that time?  How does fusing them work?” He was pretty sure Ren had never actually explained _how_ he fused personas, just that it was what he was doing when he spaced out on them for a few minutes (or longer; the current record was twenty, and he’d been sheepish until he whipped out an entirely different roster of personas).  “C’mon, you gotta tell me these things, since we’re both--”

 

“Let’s focus on the target first,” Ren said.  He’d dropped the smirk, looking ahead. “You need more personas before you worry about fusion.”

 

Ryuji frowned.  He’d been excited, and Ren’s response seemed like a complete shutdown.  What had he said wrong? Had he said something wrong?  Maybe Ren was just worried about them getting careless with the target.  They were getting closer now. Yeah. It was time to concentrate.

 

“Skull, stop jostling your knee.”

 

“Oh, sorry, Fox.”

 

Joker was silent as the twisting vortex that signaled a would-be Palace came into sight.

 

* * *

 

 

Immediately after the shadow of the abusive boyfriend had changed his tune, promising to treat the woman he was with better, Ren brought the prospect of testing Ryuji’s new ability up again, and the blond relaxed.  He hadn’t even realized he’d been tense, but a small part of him had still worried he’d upset Ren somehow. But with his friend outlining a simple plan for Ryuji--test Shiisaa first, then practice a few negotiations since most shadows didn’t exactly offer themselves for the taking, then go down into Akzeriyyuth and try to get a persona that would really branch out his capabilities--it was obvious Ren wasn’t annoyed or anything like that.  He really wanted to see what Ryuji could do, and Ryuji was determined to prove himself with everyone watching.

 

Step one, giving Shiisaa a whirl, went smooth as silk.  It felt a little strange, reaching in his mind and pulling out a persona that _wasn’t_ Seiten Taisei, but he pictured a doglion and out came that scrappy doglion, ready to dish out its weaker lightning bolts and headbutt other shadows.  No frei, which was a disappointment.

 

Morgana was the first to say it out loud.  “It’s basically a wimpier version of what you could already do.”

 

“Eh, the resistances are different,” Futaba noted from inside Necronomicon, but she didn’t sound impressed either.

 

“Well--that’s why I’m gonna get another!” Ryuji reminded them.

 

“It’s not like Pixie was powerful, either,” Ren commented.  “I worked my way up to stronger ones. So let’s start on negotiations.”

 

Step two: negotiations.  Negotiations… did not go so smoothly.  Negotiations went like a 100-yard dash with surprise hurdles jumping up from the ground.  It was a good thing they’d stuck to the path of Chemdah for the moment.

 

Ren sympathized, but in a perversely gleeful way.  “Now you all see how picky these guys are,” he said after they’d killed their _fourth_ group of shadows, because there were only so many times you could beat the weaker ones back into a hold-up position before they just burst into black goop outright, and Ryuji kept giving them answers he didn’t want and provoking them into fighting again or running away, and everyone looked frustrated except for their leader.  Okay, Ren was probably frustrated too, because he wasn’t exactly smiling, but Ryuji could swear he still managed to look smug, like he’d just proven something. “It isn’t just me.”

 

...They _had_ given him grief once or twice when he’d struck out with shadows in the past.

 

“You make it seem easier than it is, I suppose,” Makoto said.  “Since you have experience in this, maybe you should give Skull cues in what to say.”

 

“I don’t think that would work,” Haru mused.  “This is in part a show of one’s character, isn’t it?  If the shadow realized Skull is taking direction from Joker, they would also want to take their direction from Joker.”

 

Ren nodded at Haru, more serious now.  “I don’t want to interfere in the negotiations.  Skull needs to connect with a shadow on his own, and I’m sure he’ll get there.”

 

“Can you think of anything that would help him get there _faster?_ ” Ann asked.  Ryuji wanted to be annoyed at her exasperated tone, but he was right there with her in being done with this.

 

“Maybe we should call it for the day,” he suggested.  “We’re already running long, and I’m obviously not getting it.”

 

“Hey, wait, I didn’t mean it like…”  Ann trailed off, and Ryuji rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, not looking at her.

 

“Skull, take a break,” Ren said simply before turning toward the others.  “Earlier, Noir brought up the possibility that anyone could be a wild card.  Who else wants to try negotiations?”

 

Morgana raised a paw, because _of course_ Morgana wanted to try and show him up.  The real surprise was that Makoto made no move to do the same; instead her hand was at her chin as she looked down at the ground, seeming to mull something over.  Haru and Ann looked indecisive as well, Ann half-combing, half-batting a pink-gloved hand through one of her pigtails. Yusuke was hard to read even when he wasn’t wearing his fox mask, but he wasn’t chomping at the bit or anything.  And Futaba--would Futaba even want to have another persona? She really did such a kickass job in support, Ryuji thought it’d be a waste to put her on the ground.

 

“All right, Mona, you’ll take lead in the next holdup.  It’s your show for now.”

 

“Okay,” Morgana said very solemnly before turning back into a van with goofy headlight eyes.

 

The first thing Ren did after they’d all piled back in to find the next group of shadows was turn to Ryuji with an earnest expression.  “We’re not leaving until you have a successful negotiation.”

 

“We gotta leave eventually, dude.  Like, before the trains stop running.”

 

Ren made a face, pulling off his Joker mask for the moment so he could rub his eyes.  He was getting tired too, probably more than anyone else. “I was terrible at negotiations when we first started doing this, remember?  I still blow talks sometimes. So…” he sighed. “You’re right that we’re running a little long, and everyone’s a little worn down.  Pretty sure we won’t be going back into Akzeriyyuth today after all. But you’re not screwing up. You’ll get it eventually.”

 

“...Guess I gotta buck up.  You’re using a lot of words.”

 

“Be honored,” Ren drawled.  “I’m risking running out my lifelong quota for you.”

 

Ryuji was still snickering when Makoto announced that they were coming up on another group of shadows.

 

Morgana’s negotiation attempt was a bust, but not for lack of trying.  Ryuji might’ve teased him for picking on Jack Frost, one of the very few shadows the feline thief was near eye-level with, except the only sign Morgana gave of trying to be intimidating was his pulled-back slingshot.  Otherwise he was keeping up with the ice spirit’s upbeat personality, swapping jokes just like Ren might with the kookier shadows. For as tactless as the cat could be...he looked like he was handling this negotiation better than Ryuji had been his own.

 

Until Morgana told Jack Frost to become his persona.  The way the cat got shot down was so painful Ryuji found himself cringing.  Sure, he hadn’t wanted Morgana to upstage him the same day, but having Jack Frost giggle “Hee-ho” nonstop, like he’d said something completely ridiculous?  Morgana had just gotten over feeling like he couldn’t contribute to the team, and Ryuji felt the urge to yell at the ice spirit rise as those black ears pressed even flatter to Morgana’s mask in dejection.  Ren was shifting, raising his pistol toward the ceiling to give a warning shot--

 

Morgana managed to gather himself back up enough to deliver his own threat to Jack Frost, letting his slingshot fly with the ball whizzing right past the talking snowman’s face.  “Oh-hee-ho!” it yelped, because it had to be obnoxious even when it was getting threatened.

 

“Hey!  Why are you so sure I can’t do it, anyway?  Can you tell who can?” Morgana demanded.

 

“Ho hee, of course!” the spirit told him.  “Can’t you, hee ho?”

 

“Point ‘em out!”  Morgana’s tail lashed against the winding train tracks as he reloaded his slingshot.

 

The spirit pointed its thick, stubby finger at Ren first, its permanent grin broadening.  “I remember you, hee-ho! Why the serious face? I could be _your_ friend again, Joker!”

 

“Not today, Jack.  Who else?”

 

Ryuji felt embarrassed that he jerked with surprise when the spirit pointed him out.  Like he was half-expecting Shiisaa to have been a fluke. “Ho-hum… you might be fun, but I don’t know~”

 

“Anyone else?”

 

The spirit whirled around on one foot like a spherical ballerina to take them all in, then shook his head.  “Nope! The rest of you are all a long ways off! Too bad. Well, if that’s all you wanted me for, hee ho--”

 

Jack Frost escaped the way Shadows did when they knew they were beat, fading away as he slunk into the darkness of Mementos.

 

Morgana lowered his slingshot, looking up at nothing.  “Well… he told us something, at least,” he said, but he sounded like he’d been told there was no more sushi in the world.

 

“None of us besides Joker and Skull, huh?” Haru said.

 

“We should have asked him how he could tell.”  Makoto looked mostly annoyed at herself for failing to think of it sooner, shaking her head as she shifted her weight.

 

“But the way he said it was that we were a ways off!  So, we’re not there yet, but it’s not _impossible_ ,” Ann chipped in.  While everyone else was looking tired or irritated, she seemed to have gotten a second wind from the encounter--or maybe she was trying to bring up the mood.  “That’s good to know. Though we do have to figure out what the difference is, still… but we can just think it over for now.”

 

“We’ll figure it out,” Ren said assuredly.  “You’ve all got strong personas anyway. I don’t think we need to make getting more a priority.  But let's do one more fight.”

 

There was a distinct groan from Necronomicon.  “Joookeeeer…”

 

“Oracle.  Think you can find us a Shiki-Ouji?”

 

“Huh?  Sure, piece of cake.  But why that one?”

 

“Jack Frost just now.  Magician arcana, right?  And it was Shiisaa that went for Skull.”

 

“Yeah--ooh, right, Shiisaa’s Chariot arcana.  Some sort of...affinity deal?”

 

“It might help.  Can’t hurt.”

 

“Hey, timeout,” Ann called.  “What’s an arcana?”

 

Ren gave a few quick blinks at Ann before looking at Ryuji, equally confused, then Makoto, who in a rare turn of events seemed just as lost as anyone else.  Yusuke and Haru looked interested too. “We’ve never talked about this?”

 

“Not that I remember!”

 

“Oh.”

 

Ryuji got lost the second Ren and Futaba said that tarot was involved, because fortune-telling, seriously?  But he thought Ren didn’t buy any of that, that’s why he was trying to show fate could be changed. The confusion only got worse when they started naming at least half a dozen arcana, sometimes using their English names, and Ren sometimes using something Ryuji knew wasn’t English because Ann got the most incredulous look on her face and wrinkled her nose.  Maybe French? He kept saying “ley”. But Makoto and Yusuke were keeping up and asking questions, and Morgana was chipping in with commentary, so the five of them plunged down a rabbit hole for a few minutes while Ryuji and Ann and Haru (bless Haru for ending up lost with them) tried to catch back up, though Ryuji was just hearing white noise by the time Ren took a look at his face and asked, slowly, “....When did we lose you?”

 

“Effin’ tarot.”

 

“Really, Skull?”  Morgana asked.

 

“I thought Joker didn’t believe in fortune-telling!”  Ryuji scratched his head when Ren threw him a puzzled look.  Wasn’t that why they’d gone after the last target? Well. Besides the fact that the bastard had needed a heart transplant anyway.  “Uhhh... Bottom line is that there’s all different types and you think I’ll have an easier time with whatever Shiisaa is, right?”

 

“Good enough,” Futaba said.  “Especially since I’ve found a Shiki-Ouji to target.”

 

Ren clapped his hands together.  “Lead us to him, Oracle. Mona, bus time.  And yeah, Skull, it’s only a guess, but I figure it’s worth a shot.  Let’s see how you get along with Chariot shadows.” He paused, playing with a strand of his hair for a moment.  “Though, you called Shiki an asshole when I had him. But. ...Go with your gut on how to answer him.”

 

It turned out Ryuji’s gut said he should call Shiki-Ouji an asshole again.  Mostly because the towering demon’s reaction to being held-up by Ryuji had been to completely ignore Ryuji and the shotgun pointed his direction (which, okay, guns didn’t hurt the shadow, so maybe their standard way of doing a hold-up wasn’t as intimidating as it should be) to talk to _Ren._  Because he was interested in becoming _Ren’s_ mask again.  Even when Ren was keeping one hand to his mask and his lips shut, refusing to give any answer at all, and Ryuji’s temper kept spiking up as every attempt to cut in went ignored--

 

“HEY!  Pay attention!  You want to join one of us, it’s going to be me!”

 

Shiki-Ouji finally turned to him slowly, its face blank.  “Me know his strength. You? Hn. Loud mouth. Brat. Why go with you and not him?”

 

If the choice was between him and Ren, Ryuji didn’t really have a reason why Shiki-Ouji should choose to go with him.  “Give me a chance anyway”? Way too desperate. And besides--

 

“It ain’t a matter of if I’m stronger than him!  I’m strong enough to take _you_ on, asshole!”

 

The shadow laughed in an echoing and hollow sound, disappeared into a blue light, and popped into Ryuji’s mask.  Even though it had already happened once, the blond still flinched a little from surprise. “...For real?” That was the sort of response the shadow had wanted?

 

“Good job, Skull!” Ann called.

 

“Heh.  Call a spade a spade,” Yusuke said lightly, a small smile on his face.  “It seems Skull had his measure the first time.”

 

“Yeah, Shiki's a jerk.  And I’ve been a distraction during negotiations, huh?”  Ren rubbed the back of his neck.

 

“Shiki-Ouji was the first to be so overt about it, but Jack Frost was eager to be recruited by you again too,” Makoto noted.  “Even if you don’t interfere, they _know_ you.  It’s something to consider for the future.”

 

He might actually do more negotiations in the future.  Ryuji still found that wild to think about. Not too many, if he could only recruit Chariot shadows, but...maybe part of the trouble really had been Ren being around?  He frowned. It wasn’t like Ren was to blame though, and besides, he was their leader. Sure, now he took a break during the quick scraps, but Ryuji was pretty sure he wouldn’t appreciate staying on the sidelines in more serious fights.  The guy would probably stress himself out. “Nah, that won’t be a problem. I’ll just have to get better at grabbing their attention!”

 

Ann giggled.  “With you, that might work.”

 

“Joker!” Futaba called from inside Necronomicon.  “Mission complete?! I demand sustenance!”

 

“Yeah, it’s definitely time to go.  Great work today, everyone. Noir, sorry for pushing so long.”

 

“Oh, it’s fine,” Haru said.  “I’m glad for the experience.  Though I do need to get home soon…”  Her voice was as gentle as always, as though she was worried she was putting them out when they all knew any curfew her father had set wasn’t to be taken lightly.  She was so sweet. She really would be cute if Ryuji hadn’t already witnessed her beheading a shadow on more than one occasion.

 

“Don’t worry, I’ll get us back up top in record time,” Morgana told her.  Ryuji wondered if it got tiring changing from bus to cat to bus so often.  “Drive fast, Queen!”

 

They’d stolen three hearts and made three adults a little less shitty.  And Ryuji could recruit more persona, like Ren could. Even if negotiations had been frustrating, it had been a good day.  A great day.

 

It would have been an amazing day, even, if Ren hadn’t gotten a little weird when they were heading back to the entrance of Mementos.  “Skull,” he said. It was a low undertone, but Skull heard it easily because he’d already been paying attention to how Ren was slowly tensing up next to him.  “Do you see anything new here?”

 

“Uh, where?”

 

“Right where Mona’s headlights are pointed.”

 

Ryuji looked. And looked. And then he squinted, because what the hell was Ren talking about? “How big is it?  Point it out.”

 

“Mona’s headlights are right on it, Skull.  If you’re not already seeing it, you won’t.”  Ren pointed…'it' out anyway. Or Ryuji assumed that’s what he was trying to do, because as far as Ryuji could see Joker was just resting his arm on the chair in front of him and pointing at... his favorite corner for spacing out.

 

Makoto braked as they got closer.  Ryuji continued to squint. He was just starting to wonder if this was some sort of joke when Ren gave a very quiet sigh and sat back in his seat.

 

“You might not be able to fuse personas,” Ren said, and then, “Too bad,” like Ryuji couldn’t feel all the tension bleeding out of him.

 

“Why not?” Ryuji asked.

 

He didn’t realize his tone had been a little too sharp until he caught Ann glancing back.  Ren’s face had shifted into an expression that didn’t go with his Joker mask, and then he grinned and bumped Ryuji’s shoulder.  “Don’t worry about it. Just being able to recruit more is going to be useful.”

 

And then everyone was getting out to leave Mementos, so Ren popped his door open and hopped out.  Ryuji hesitated just long enough for Morgana to start up--”Skull, please don’t tell me you forgot something inside me _again_ \--” and then he was scooting to get out himself while hollering at the catbus (“I didn’t forget anything!  ‘Sides, chips shouldn’t make you sick if you can eat human food like you always say--” “They were _still in the bag!_ I had to turn back just so Joker could get them out!”) and anything he might have had to say to Ren was gone in the commotion of leaving Mementos, continuing to bicker with Morgana, being gently if tiredly reminded by Makoto that he was going to look like a crazy person if he kept arguing with what looked like a normal cat in the middle of a train station, and checking his phone to make sure his mom hadn’t left him messages or anything.

 

Which was probably for the best, because he was getting confused what the issue was, and he really didn’t want to get heated with a friend for no good reason.  He’d been disappointed to be told he wouldn’t be able to fuse personas, but it really wasn’t that big a deal considering that he’d never had a reason to even think he would have more than one persona to fuse before today.  And even if it was a big deal, that was his problem, not Ren’s. It’d been more upsetting that Ren seemed _happy_ about the idea he couldn’t.  Like...maybe he really was bothered that Skull had turned out to be a wild card too?  Except he’d been all gungho for getting him through to negotiating for his own persona, and Ryuji didn’t think he’d been faking or anything.  The guy could be hard to read sometimes, but that was mostly because he kept quiet at school.

 

Maybe it had just been too much at once?  But then why had Ren brought it up again? ...What was Ryuji supposed to have seen in the corner?

 

“Ugh,” the blond grumbled, stashing his phone away in his pocket.  This was now too much thinking for him; he’d rather just hold onto the fact that he’d gotten two new personas today.  Yeah, they were weaker than Seiten Taisei, but Shiki-Ouji was invulnerable to physical damage--that could easily be useful in the future.  Even if the persona was a jerk. And Shiisaa could probably help out too.

 

A flicker of bright blue caught his eye, and he paused in his walk home, glancing curiously at the alley to his left.  That way led to Untouchable...maybe one of Iwai’s customers had been passing by? He wouldn’t expect one of Iwai’s crowd to dress in bright colors, but then again, he wasn’t about to tell them what to wear.  Huh. Ryuji shrugged it off, and kept walking home.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Ryuji was out the door to school before he even thought to check the time--huh, he was running a whole twenty minutes early.  No wonder his mom had sounded surprised as she said goodbye. He usually didn’t leave until he absolutely had to, as in “sprint to the last train before school” had to.  It wasn’t that he was a late riser; he typically got up with the sun, which had been convenient when he was on track. Just, after Kamoshida had taken track away, he’d preferred spending as much of his morning as possible at home, especially since it was the only time he’d see much of his mom during the week.  Ryuji grimaced a little to think that instead he’d be sitting around at school, probably getting pestered by his classmates that he, the big delinquent, was actually early for once.

 

Then he saw a mop of unruly black hair in the middle of the passengers waiting for the next train.  Beneath the hair, a Shujin uniform. He perked up. “Hey, Renren!” he called out, trying to cut through the crowd without bumping anyone.  Ren had his face in a book, his other hand carrying a thermos, but his friend looked up just enough to make eye contact and smile the tiniest bit.  Then he was back in his book, the nerd. Renren was definitely more studious than him or Ann. Though he was pretty smart in general, not just book-smart.

 

Ren lowered the book a little as Ryuji drew close.  “Your legs must be tired,” he said by way of greeting.

 

“Huh?  Am I walkin’ funny or something?” Ryuji asked, confused. He did tend to favor the one leg, but it shouldn’t be obvious--more than usual anyway--first thing in the morning.

 

“You’re not,” Ren reassured him.  “It’s just...I know you’re an endurance runner, but you were running through my mind _all night._ ”

 

Ryuji’s brain short-circuited.  “Say what?!” he yelped. Through Ren’s mind?  All night?? Holy _shit_ , what did that mean?  No, wait, it was kind of obvious what it meant, except--  “Dude, are you for real--”

 

Wait a second.  Ren wasn’t saying anything, just keeping a steady gaze, but his lips were starting to crack in a grin he could barely suppress.  And now Ryuji noticed the book he was holding wasn’t a textbook or study guide like he’d thought it would be at all. The title was “Playing the Game”--it was a book entirely about picking up chicks.  The blond groaned.

 

“You’re still reading that?”

 

“Finished it last night, but the pick-up lines are still funny.  There’s an entire list for runners.” Ren cleared his throat quietly, then read: “‘Call me kilometers, because I want you to complete me.’  ‘Your pace, or mine?’” He looked up from the book just enough to gaze at Ryuji through his eyelashes. “‘Are you my training plan? Because I’ll go as long as you tell me to.’”

 

It was such a stupid line, but the way Ren lowered his voice as he said it had Ryuji praying he didn’t blush.  At least not enough for Ren to notice. Because he knew, he _knew_ Ren didn’t mean it.

 

Sure enough, Ren’s gaze dropped back down to the book, his tone switching to casual in a heartbeat.  “You’re the only runner I know. Think any of these would actually work?”

 

“Uh...I think you’re better off coming up with your own.  And trying them on, you know, girls. Not guys.”

 

“But you give the best reactions.  I’ll stop if it’s bothering you.”

 

Ryuji shrugged.  “It ain’t _bothering_ me.”  Not really.  He teased Ren, Ren teased him; it was all in good fun.  He just worried that at some point Ren would notice he wasn’t making the right reactions for two bros ribbing each other, and then it wouldn’t be in good fun anymore.  Ugh. The sooner he got a girlfriend, the sooner he could get over this... _this._  Wait a second.  “Hey, you said you were done reading it, right?  Let me borrow it!” It couldn’t be all bad if Ren had found it worth reading.  Maybe “Playing the Game” would help him with girls.

 

A muffled groan came from Ren’s school bag.  “We don’t need two of you spouting dumb pick-up lines.”

 

Ren rolled his eyes at Morgana’s complaining and passed the book to Ryuji.  “The pick-up lines are cheesy and the author’s kind of sleazy, but it does have some good advice.  Just… imagine how Ann would react before you use anything from there.”

 

“Why Ann?”

 

“Because Lady Ann has a very discerning taste!”

 

“Because you know Ann best, and her reaction would...probably be the most typical?”  Ren didn’t sound very sure about this. Ryuji wasn’t too sure either.

 

“I don’t think we know any normal girls, Renren.”

 

There was a grumble from the bag, but no actual argument from Morgana; maybe he thought it’d be insulting to protest that Ann was merely normal.  Ren gave a small chuckle but said nothing, letting the conversation fall into a lull until the train to school was pulling in to the station.

 

“Did you have any weird dreams last night?”

 

“Lemme guess, ‘cause you were dreaming of me?”

 

Ren blinked in surprise, and then he absolutely beamed, like Ryuji had just made his day.  Uh oh. “Asked because I had some strange dreams when I came to Tokyo, right before...you know.  The whole wild card thing. But now that you _mention_ it--”

 

“Nope!”  Ryuji made a beeline for the opening doors.  He’d been trying to head Ren off, not egg him on!

 

He could hear the other second-year laughing as he followed at a more sedate pace.  It wasn’t a quiet chuckle either like Ren would usually do in public, but one of his real laughs, deep and kind of loud.  At least one of them was getting a kick out of this. Well, if Ren was comfortable teasing him, things really were okay between them.

 

Ryuji plopped himself down in one of the few available seats, ignoring looks from envious salarymen.  First come, first serve; he’d get up if a grandpa or grandma needed it, but otherwise, this seat was his.  “So, it’s cool with you?” he asked Ren as he caught up. With no seats left, Ren was left to stand over him.  “The wild card thing?” The train was crowded, but no one cared about other people’s conversations. And even if they were listening, it’d just sound like they were talking about, what, poker?  Blackjack?

 

“It’s cool.”  Ren’s answer was pat, but one eyebrow was rising above his glasses, like he was confused that Ryuji was even asking.

 

And Ryuji would probably have tried to drop it here if he was talking to anyone else, downplay it, but Ren was his best friend.  Maybe they’d only known each other five months, but those months had been wild, and Ryuji knew that the trust between them wasn’t exactly something you found every day.  He didn’t want to ruin it by making himself anxious over _if_ Ren might be unhappy about something or not.  They could talk about things. He just had to explain himself. “It’s just, you...seemed kinda weird about the chance of me doing fusions.  Not that I’m gonna anyway--” He hadn’t seen whatever Ren had been trying to point out in Mementos yet, and he was guessing that having no clue what the ‘strange dreams’ might be about was another knock against the possibility-- “I just wondered if maybe I overstepped myself or... somethin’.”

 

It sounded pretty stupid said out loud, because he still didn’t know what the problem would be if there was one, but Ren looked thoughtful.  “No, of course not. Sorry I was acting strange.” He paused long enough for Ryuji to start tapping one foot, but the blond didn’t want to interrupt whatever train of thought he was on.  “The thing about that is… You know I’m not actually staring at the wall when I do that, right? Fusion?”

 

...This was news to Ryuji.  “Uhh… What _are_ you doing, then?  Because it definitely looks like staring at the wall.  To everyone.” Ryuji knew everyone thought this, because every time they'd gotten a new member, the more experienced thieves had eventually had to field the question of ‘is something wrong with Joker?’.  The only exception had been Yusuke. The artist had stood at Ren’s side, stared with him, and then started critiquing the dismal theme of Mementos while leaving clear openings for Ren to jump in with his own opinion, but carrying on when he thought Ren was too deep in fascination to respond.  In Yusuke’s case, Ryuji and Ann had needed to explain that no, Joker did not have a deep passion for architectural design. That they knew, anyway.

 

Yusuke still stood at Joker’s side and stared with him sometimes, in a really unique display of solidarity.  Or maybe an excuse to tune everyone else out for a few minutes. His reason probably depended on the day.

 

“...There’s a room...all in blue,” Ren said slowly.  He stared straight ahead, out the train windows to the dull wall of the subway passing by, instead of looking down at Ryuji.  “I know it sounds weird, but there is.”

 

“I believe you.”  It’d be a weird thing to make up, anyway.

 

“It’s a...It’s...a strange place.  There are two girls. A woman always singing somewhere.  And an old man with a nose long enough to put someone’s eye out.”  Ren cracked a smile at that, and Ryuji did too, but otherwise, Ren looked distant and vague, almost like the times he spaced out on them.  “He calls it the Velvet Room, and says he’s the master-- _Mona!_ ”

 

The spacey look vanished from Ren’s face the same second that the schoolbag slung over his shoulder jerked, knocking into the two people behind him.  The yellow-suited businesswoman rounded on Ren, who tried his best to make himself smaller as she laid into him for having broken one of the golden rules of train transportation.  You could talk about weird supernatural shit all you wanted and people would ignore you; you did not bump other people. Ryuji got to his feet and offered up his seat to get her off their case, but even after Ren was done making apologies, the teenagers still spent the last few minutes before their stop in silence.  Ren clutched his school bag to make sure Morgana wasn’t going anywhere.

 

The minute they were off the train and could get even a semblance of privacy, Ryuji opened the schoolbag and stuck his face in.  “What was _t_ _hat_ , Mona?”

 

Morgana’s black fur blended into shadow so that Ryuji could only really make out the glint of his bright blue eyes.  They looked shifty, though maybe that was just the whole ‘glowing in the dark’ bit. “...Something startled me!”

 

“Uh, you’re the only thing in the bag that can move.  Did you seriously surprise yourself?”

 

Ren shifted his weight, pulling the bag away from Ryuji.  “You can’t do that at school. You get caught, I get expelled.”  His tone was flat.

 

Morgana’s ears drooped as the cat hunkered down further in the bag, one eye wincing.  “I know, I know. I shouldn’t have… Sorry. And I interrupted you telling Ryuji about that room.”

 

“Oh, yeah--wait, are you trying to change the subject?”

 

Morgana’s blue eyes glinted at Ryuji.  “I said sorry, and I won’t do it again. But I’m curious myself.  Ren’s never mentioned this room before. Why is that?” He craned his neck as he asked the question, directing it to Ren, but the teenager only shrugged.

 

“No one else can even see it, so what’s the point?  I’m only bringing it up now to explain...I was worried how Ryuji would react if he did see it,” Ren admitted.  He shrugged again. “It’s no big deal now, but it’s an unsettling place. Honestly, it’s probably better you don’t see it.”

 

“Wait, but--you go in there _all the time_ , Renren.”

 

Ren’s lips pinched together before he shook his head.  “Like I said, it’s no big deal for me now.” Except it was a big enough deal for him to worry about Ryuji?  And think he was better off not seeing it instead of just figuring he’d get used to it too? The blond knew he wasn’t the best at subtleties, but it definitely felt like Ren was leaving something important out.  But Ren was moving on ahead, zipping up the Mona-bag. “I’ve got to get in class before more students get in,” he tossed over his shoulder as explanation.

 

...Yeah, Renren was definitely leaving something out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is both late and hella rushed and all I can say really is that I had several false starts to this chapter (...I'm not quite an outliner) and then as of today my adapter has stopped working on me, so I would rather post this and maybe need to revise the flow of the chapter later than keep getting delayed by outside things. Sorry. I'm not fully confident in Ryuji's voice so if you have any feedback on him (or any of the characters really) I would appreciate it!


	3. Like a Liar

 “A room, huh?”

 

“Yeah.  You can’t scan it either, can you?”

 

“Not yet...but I’m _gonna_.”

 

“Guys, let’s not crowd Joker,” Makoto suggested.  “He’s going to step on one of you if he turns around too fast.”

 

“Inari stands next to him all the time!”

 

“I am in Joker’s field of sight.  You were harder to spot even before you decided to lie on the ground.”

 

“It’s a bold fool who disses his support, Inari.”  But Futaba did scoot back a few centimeters. Just in case Ren did spin around.

 

Ryuji scratched the back of his neck, watching the scene in front of him.  Ren was doing his usual spacing out. Yusuke had decided to contemplate the scenery with him.  And Futaba and Morgana were both lying on their stomachs next to each other, idly kicking their feet in the air like little kids, Morgana watching Ren while Futaba tip-tapped away on her Oracle console.  Turned out the hacker took “invisible room tied to metaverse nonsense” as a personal challenge to her navigation skills. The other girls were hanging back a bit, but even they were paying more attention to Joker’s corner than usual after Morgana had asked if he was going to “that room”.

 

He walked up to Ren, though instead of standing at his side, he walked a step or two ahead, turning around to face Ren.  It was always kind of weird to actually _look_ at Joker when he was doing this, because his face went completely blank.  A little like he was posing for some super serious photo, but his eyes behind the domino mask were focused on nothing, staring past Ryuji like he didn’t exist.  The first time Ren had done this, without warning, Ryuji and Ann and Morgana had all tried snapping him out of it, and they’d gotten creeped out and decided to let him come out of it on his own around the three-minute mark.  Later times, they knew he was okay, so it became less freaky and more a funny quirk of their Joker. Though, the whole “Velvet Room” thing was making it creepy again, because it kind of made it sound like Joker was going somewhere else.  Like…

 

“If he’s going to a room, ain’t it one of those out-of-body experiences?”

 

“Huh.  I guess it could be?” Ann answered him from where she stood with Makoto and Haru.  “That would explain why none of us can snap him out of it when he’s like this. Complete lights on, nobody home.”

 

Futaba tapped her goggles.  “He’d be free real estate if we had any wandering spirits around.  Hehehehe…”

 

...That was not a reassuring statement from her.  And what was with that creepy laugh?

 

“O-Oracle!  Why would you even say something like that?” Makoto demanded.  “Ghosts aren’t real!”

 

“But Queen, a few months ago, none of us would have thought the Metaverse was real…”

 

“Noir, no.  The Metaverse is enough.  Oracle, stop cackling, _we don’t need ghosts in Mementos--_ ”

 

Ann was laughing a little herself, but she brought up a hand to pat Makoto on the shoulder, telling her to calm down. Ryuji shook his head and refocused on Ren.  Not that anything had really changed with the guy; he was still staring straight ahead, right at him.

 

No...on second thought, something was different, and Ryuji scanned Ren's face again, trying to figure it out.  The guy hadn’t moved, and his expression was still blank. Barely a twitch when Ryuji took a step forward. Soft gray eyes staring right at him--wait.

 

At him, not past.

 

“Boo.”

 

“Wh-whoa!”

 

The girls’ conversation came to a halt when Ryuji jerked back from Ren, tripped over his own dang feet, and went crashing down.  His back smarted, but his pride was more hurt, especially when he caught Yusuke’s “How graceless”. Ren leaned into view with both an offered hand and a smirk.

 

“...I win.”

 

“Wha--It wasn’t a staring contest, you jerk!”

 

“So it was…?”

 

“...Ugh.  Okay, yeah, you won.”  Giving in seemed way easier than explaining why he’d actually gotten up in Ren’s face, trying to see if he’d give any sign at all of what being in the ‘Velvet Room’ was like.  In retrospect, might have been a little creepy for him to do.

 

Ren looked curious as he helped Ryuji up, like he might ask anyway, and the blond was bracing himself for the question when a distraction happened in the form of Futaba.  Or more accurately, her persona. Necronomicon appeared over Yusuke, its weirdly fluid cables snaking around his body and lifting him up into the air as if he weighed nothing.  Which, considering how skinny the guy was… Ryuji stared as Yusuke squirmed, the cables quickly catching him again every time he got somewhere like fingers chasing after a slippery stick of butter.  Or a wet weasel.

 

“O-Oracle!”

 

“Oh, no!” Futaba yelled, slapping her hands to her cheeks in exaggerated surprise.  “Aliens have mistaken Inari as one of their own! Only Arsene can rescue him!”

 

Ren stared at her.  “... Oracle, I told you you'd see him, put Fox down.”

 

“Hold a moment!” Yusuke called, freezing; the tentacles wrapped around his arms and legs for a more secure grip.  “This is a new perspective.”

 

He was upside down now, his hands framing the group as if he was already composing a piece.  Futaba looked just as surprised as anyone else, but she quickly rolled with it, adjusting her goggles and giving Ren a grin that would have been innocent on anyone else.  “See? He's fiiine. Necronomicon’s got him.”

 

“Just… Don't make us need to heal before we even go through the palace,” Makoto warned, glancing up at the artist overhead with a wince.

 

“Please, Necronomicon’s better than that.”

 

Ren shook his head, but apparently he decided it’d be simpler to satisfy Futaba’s curiosity quickly, because his mask was already blazing as he touched it.  “Come! Arsene!”

 

Ryuji had seen Ren’s first persona already, but the winged demon in red and black still caught his attention when it appeared.  There was no way to ignore Arsene; he was so effin’ cool. Ryuji hadn’t been able to resist using him as inspiration for designing the first Phantom Thieves’ calling card.  And, yeah...Yusuke might have had to...improve the design a bit, but the artist had recognized that the logo was cool too, even though he was only seeing Arsene himself for the first time now.  The bold colors? The top hat and horned, mask-like face? Arsene looked like a gentleman thief while also looking absolutely _wicked._  It’d been a shame when Ren had suddenly started using some goblin in a floating jug instead.  Fusion apparently didn’t care about coolness.

 

Though, as Ren quickly ran Arsene through his small arsenal of abilities, picking a wall as a demonstration target and adding explanations for the moves that weren’t pure damage, it kind of became apparent he’d been outclassed a while ago.  While Yusuke seemed content to simply admire Arsene’s aesthetics (totally justified when the aesthetics were badass), Makoto looked puzzled, Haru outright confused, and Ryuji felt like he could guess what both girls were thinking.

 

Futaba came out and said it.  “How is _this_ your persona?  He’s weak.” The wall had taken _some_ damage, but considering the number of times it’d been cleaved at and cursed, it wasn’t all that impressive.

 

Ren chuckled, but Arsene flapped his wings before tucking them in, almost as if offended.  “I told you that. That’s why I had to bail him out of persona jail.”

 

“That is not a thing.”

 

“Sure it is.  Weak personas go to persona jail for slacking off.”

 

“He has some offensive moves, but between the sukunda, dream needle, and...you said he tends to land critical hits more in an ambush?” Makoto confirmed.  “He does seem very like a thief. Trying to slow his enemies or lull them into a stupor to escape them. Only really a fighter when cornered.”

 

“And not even a strong one,” Ren agreed and dropped his concentration, letting the persona disappear.  “I could make him stronger with skill cards, and… some help from the Velvet Room,” he admitted. “But we didn’t have those at the start.  Besides, it’d take too much effort.”

 

“Wouldn’t it be worth it?” Haru asked.  “He’s your persona.”

 

Ren blinked at her.  He seemed surprised, but then shrugged.  “He’s mine, but they all are. That’s what being a Phantom Thief is for me.  If Arsene can’t keep up, that’s fine. I’ll take someone else’s power and make it my own.”

 

“Doubling down on the thieving,” Futaba said approvingly, though she sighed the next minute.  Necronomicon lowered Yusuke to the ground, surprisingly gently considering how quickly it had picked him up.  Then again, Yusuke looked like he needed the care; his face was flushed under his mask from having been upside down so long, and Ann put a hand on his shoulder for a moment when he swayed slightly.  “Hn, I really thought Skull’s new wild card was tied to his persona getting stronger, but then again, there’s nothing really special about Arsene…” The navigator shook her head. “The timing is still suspicious.  Hey, Skull! What else was going on when Captain Kidd became Seiten Taisei? What triggered it?”

 

“...I don’t.  Really know?” Ryuji shrugged.  It had been kind of a surprise when it happened.  “I was just eating ramen with this guy.” He jerked a thumb at Ren, and then the significance of his words clicked.  “Wait…”

 

“With Joker, hm?”  Still flushed, Yusuke looked thoughtful.

 

“He’s contagious,” Oracle pronounced.

 

“While eating ramen…”

 

“Panther, there’s no way it’s related to food!”

 

“Are you _sure_?” Ann teased Morgana; she obviously didn’t believe it herself, but was enjoying how indignant the idea made the feline thief.

 

“W-well, maybe it’s impossible to say _for sure_ , but it’s more likely to be that guy!”

 

“What’d you do, sneeze on my ramen when I wasn’t looking?” Ryuji asked Ren with a laugh and a soft elbow in the side.  He knew Futaba probably hadn’t meant that Ren was literally contagious, but it was the first image that had popped into his head, and it was gross but hilarious.

 

Ren smirked, playing along.  “Payback for you dumping ginger in my bowl again.”

 

“Uncool, man.  I only do that ‘cause you eat like garbage all the time.  You’re barely better than Fox when it comes to taking care of yourself.”

 

Yusuke started.  “Hey--!”

 

One of Ren’s eyebrows rose before he turned to the group as a whole again.  “Everyone, Skull’s new code name is ‘Mom’--”

 

“Uh, no it ain’t--”

 

“Our leader has spoken, Mom,” Futaba intoned.

 

Ryuji’s indignant protest was cut short by Haru laughing.  The wavy brunette quickly muffled the sound with her hand and turned away, but there was no mistaking the shaking in her shoulders.  Ryuji grinned. At least their antics were giving her a break from her stress.

 

...But seriously, knowing basic nutrition didn’t make him a mom.  For being top of the class, Ren could be kind of dumb about taking care of his body.

 

“If Joker is a factor, I suppose that explains why Skull picked it up first,” Makoto mused.  “You two are close.”

 

“Uh--”  Ryuji could feel his cheeks warming, even though it was _Makoto_ , she obviously hadn’t meant anything weird by it, and he forced a shrug.  “I guess?”

 

“You guys are giving me too much credit,” Ren said.  “It was Skull’s awakening. ...Second awakening. He’s grown stronger as a person.”  The praise was brief, but it was not helping Ryuji’s cheeks cool down. “I just happened to be there.  Now, let’s split up. We need to get that keycard today. Mona, Noir, and…Queen. Come with me. Skull, Panther, Fox, you’ll be the second team.  If you come across any stragglers, maybe try negotiations, but play it safe.”

 

“Got it,” Ryuji answered.  Being on the second team wasn’t exactly exciting; since they had fewer numbers, and Joker’s team thinned out the shadows ahead anyway, they really did play it safe.  Heck, before they’d picked up Haru, they hadn’t even called it another _team_ , since it had just been two people slinking further behind, occasionally sniping a lone shadow.  But it’d be bad if all eight of them were barreling through the same hall as one group. He just had to suck it up when he was stuck in the back and trailing after the action.  At least with Oracle coordinating them, they didn’t get separated too far; sometimes they even snuck closer to help out if Joker’s team got in a fight that was tougher than usual.

 

And...trying to negotiate with the stragglers Joker left behind might make it a little more interesting today.

 

“We’ll defer to you during hold-ups, then,” Yusuke told Ryuji.

 

“You’re both cool with that?”  He looked at Ann, figuring she might object, but she only shrugged.

 

“You’ll be the one talking with them, so it makes sense.”  She smirked. “We can trust you on this, right? Don’t make me regret it.”

 

As it turned out, Ann almost did come to regret it.  Because while Joker’s team obtained keycards, Skull found one shadow type that he really wanted to recruit.

 

It was just a shame the shadow wasn’t having it.

 

“Oracle, t-tell Joker that we’re g-going to be d-down a party member, I’m murdering Skull.”

 

 _“Gotcha,”_ Futaba responded from her safe distance in Necronomicon.  _"S_ _kull, you want to pass along last words?”_

 

“I said I was sorry!” Ryuji hissed.

 

“You s-said that the first time,” Ann ground out, fire in her eyes and hands around his ascot, “But that didn’t stop you from going after her a _s-second_ time _,_ now d-did it?”

 

“Panther, your teeth are still chattering,” Yusuke said, obviously concerned but making no attempt to separate the two.  “You should concentrate on getting warm again first--”

 

“I’m n-not going to get warm again if he k-keeps going after the stupid sexy ice d-demon!  _I’m weak to ice!_ ”

 

Ryuji winced.  Yeah, put like that, it was pretty clear he’d been thoughtless.  Yusuke was just fine since Goemon resisted ice, and if it hadn’t been Ann with them but Haru or Makoto or even Morgana, maybe he could have justified trying again, because he thought he’d learned from the first negotiation, and it was so easy to push the winged demon into a hold-up.  But when both failed attempts had resulted in Ann getting hit with a Bufula to the face, she was probably right to be angry. “Okay, I’m sorry, it was stupid of me! We fight her again, we shoot her down and do an all-out attack right away. I promise. I won’t try negotiating with the stupid sexy ice lady again.”

 

Ann stared at him, her grip on his ascot shaking a little but still clutching tight as she shivered.  “...Y-you’re not even trying to say her being se-sexy had nothing to do with this.”

 

He considered his words.  “...I mean, I want to, but you hate liars.  And you’ve got eyes.” Would an ice demon give him more abilities?  Absolutely. Was that why the winged lady had first caught his attention? _Absolutely not_.

 

The honesty was the right way to go with Ann, as she snorted, finally letting go of him to wrap her arms around herself.  “Damn straight I d-do. Hot shorts and no bra...ugh, Skull. I’m already going to feel weird if _Joker_ gets that one.”

 

“Why would it be different if _he_ got her?”

 

“Because it’s at l-least a little less likely he went after her for the hot shorts!”

 

“Yeah, hot shorts are too tame for him after the bondage angel.” Ryuji snorted.  Maybe Ren was more sneaky about it, but he’d participated in Operation Maidwatch. He was not some innocent country boy as the girls liked to think.

 

“That one had quite an interesting appearance from a conceptual standpoint,” Yusuke mused.  “Being blindfolded, she cannot commit the sin of lust herself, and yet those who look on her may fall to it--”

 

 _“Wow, Inari, just say you’re horny,”_ Futaba interrupted, missing out on the way Yusuke sputtered in front of Ann and Ryuji.   _“Also, wake me up when the metaverse realizes sexy men exist too.  Don’t get me wrong, stupid sexy ice demon is all right--her name’s Lilim, by the way, Joker sweet-talked her while you guys were arguing--”_

 

“Aww, dammit,” Ryuji muttered.

 

_“But!  The ratio of sexy girl shadows to sexy boy shadows is grossly lopsided.  Because there are no sexy boy shadows so far.”_

 

“Incubus?” Yusuke questioned.

 

Ann winced.

 

 _“Incubus is about as attractive as spam mail for enlarging your penis,”_ Futaba said flatly.

 

Yeah, Incubus was... _yeesh_.  Not that Ryuji planned to participate in the ‘sexy boy shadow’ discussion, because then someone would probably ask why he even had an opinion.  After Ann stopped shivering, they went back to playing it safe with the stragglers and bypassing most of them entirely unless there was a risk of them raising the Palace security.  As much as Ryuji wanted to impress Ren by getting a new shadow first, he still wasn’t doing too great at negotiations, apparently. Only one had seemed to go okay--with this weird, spinny star with an eye in the middle--but even that had ended awkwardly.  He’d gotten liquid mercury out of the exchange, but for all he knew that had been a prank. What was liquid mercury good for, even? None of the shadows here were the Chariot arcana, so maybe it’d been pointless to try at all.

 

At least now that they were through the barracks, the space scenery was pretty cool, and he was getting practice with Shiisaa and Shiki-Ouji in the few fights they did.  Shiisaa wasn’t really _helpful_ , considering his electricity skills were weaker than Seiten Taisei’s, but his protection from physical attacks was nice, and it was just a kick to watch the weird-looking doglion chase sludging piles of black ooze and on one occasion a robot, zapping them with relentless energy.  Ren didn’t seem to get attached to his personas, considering how often he rotated them; he’d even gotten rid of Arsene pretty quickly. Ryuji wasn’t sure how he managed that. Shiisaa was cute, in an ugly sort of way.

 

Shiki-Ouji wasn’t ever going to be cute the way Shiisaa was, too gruff, but he was stronger and him having an ability that did the same kind of damage as their bullets was turning out really useful in here, letting Ann and Yusuke conserve their ammo.  The Lilim were weak to it, and so were those strange vampire moths. Too big for their colorful wings to carry them quickly and easily downed by bullets or Shiki-Ouji’s snap, they didn’t seem all that strong.

 

It was kind of sad when even the shadow knew it.  “...What do you plan to do with me? Me lost because me am weak…”  It struggled on its side, but its fuzzy blue body was awkwardly shaped to begin with, just round all over, and they had their guns trained on it for any sudden movements.  It soon gave up on trying to adjust itself, instead staring up at Ryuji with big ol’ red bug eyes.

 

“Aw, don’t give me that,” Ryuji huffed.  “You were _just_ trying to zap me.  I ain’t feeling sorry for you.”  Served it right for not realizing he was the bug zapper here.

 

“Are we attacking, then?” Yusuke asked pointedly, because they were very clearly not at the moment.

 

“Yeah, Skull, if you want to try to recruit it, just go for it.  At least it’s not the ice demon.”

 

Mostly he just wanted to not feel like a bully.  The moth looked as sad as Mishima back in April. Well, since he hadn’t tried with this one yet… “Yo.  Join our team.”

 

“Will it be good for me?”

 

“Man, you guys really are picky even when you’ve lost,” Ryuji sighed.  “I think so. Better than what you’ve got going on right now, huh?” Wasn’t it like--they’d fallen under the palace ruler’s control, here?  Because of the distortion or whatever. And then they got their butts kicked and they disappeared. What a life.

 

The man-sized insect hummed thoughtfully.  Also disturbingly. Ryuji had to fight the urge to pull the trigger.  “You think me can help you?”

 

Oh, it wanted some encouragement?  He could do that. Ryuji grinned. “I’m looking forward to it!”

 

“Hm...hmm….me like your words,” the insect said. “Okay!”  Its colorful wings opened to an impossibly huge range, and Ryuji found himself backstepping as it flipped onto its scrawny feet quickly.  It could have done that the whole time?! “Me Mothman. My power is your power...use it how you want.”

 

And that was how Ryuji got his fourth persona.  “So you felt bad for it after all,” Ann teased him, though her grin was a little queasy.  “I really hope we don’t run into more of those.”

 

“I moth ask, do those shadows bug you, Panther?” Fox asked.

 

 _“The good news is Skull clearly isn’t limited to one arcana,”_ Futaba announced.   _“Mothman’s Moon arcana.”_

 

“What’s the bad news?” Ann asked curiously.

 

_“Inari is dead to me again.”_

 

Fox’s tail wagged behind him.  Which was weird when it wasn’t a real tail.

 

_“Joker says to meet up in the safe room.  The next area looks pretty different, so let’s make like trees and leave.  We’ll come back when we’ve got more energy.”_

 

They’d gone back into an enclosed space again, and there were sounds of loud machinery ahead.  Like they were near some kind of assembly line or something. It was getting late, too, so it probably was better if they stopped for today.  Ren, Morgana, Haru, Makoto, and Futaba were already spread out in the safe room. Futaba had repurposed some kind of storage chest as her lounge chair.  Haru and Makoto were seated at one end of the table in the center of the room while Morgana sat on top of it by Ren, who was standing like usual--if Ren sat down for long in a safe room, it either meant he was having a talk with someone else or meant they needed to _go_ , because he’d gone past tired and into exhausted.  Otherwise he usually stayed up and about, flitting between checking in with everyone or looking over supplies before he decided they should move again.

 

Even though they were leaving for the day anyway, he was still doing little check-ups.  Ren went to Ann first, then Yusuke, while Ryuji stretched his legs and made small talk with Makoto and Haru in an earnest attempt to not be the brat yelling ‘look at _me_ , Joker”.  It was a relief when Ren took the seat on his left.

 

Not so much for Ren to start with: “Oracle says you’re building a shock team.”

 

...Oh.  Yeah, Mothman only used electricity and physical attacks, didn’t he?  So Ryuji didn’t really have a good use for him either. Dammit.

 

The annoyance must have shown on his face, because Ren laughed a little and shook his head.  “Sorry, it jumped out at both of us. We were trying to figure out patterns with your negotiations.”

 

“Shiki-Ouji isn’t like that,” Ryuji argued.  “And one of the other shadows gave me something, even if it wouldn’t come with me.”

 

It turned out liquid mercury _was_ good for something; as soon as Ryuji showed it to Ren, Ren told Morgana to look over, and the cat’s eyes gleamed.  “Eternal lockpick!”

 

“Eternal what?”

 

“It’s something Mona wants me to craft.”

 

“We’ll never have to pass up treasure again!”  Which explained why Morgana looked like he was halfway into one of his treasure freakouts.

 

“The mercury’s been hard to find.  Who gave it to you?”

 

“This starfish with an eye,” Ryuji said breezily, tracing out the silhouette of the shadow on the table.

 

Ren’s eyes softened under the Joker mask and a small smile on his face.  “That one...Fool arcana? It’s a good find, Skull. You should try negotiating with that shadow again when we come back.  How’s your head?”

 

“Uh--fine?”  He’d wanted to ask just what about the Fool arcana made Ren so happy, but now he was kind of concerned--  “Why’re you asking about my head?”

 

“You’re up to four personas.  My limit was six at first, and I don’t know if it’s the same for you or not.”

 

“What happens if you go over?” Futaba asked.

 

“Tension headache.  Pretty bad, too, I got nauseous the one time I tried to tough it out.”

 

“Nauseous?” Ann repeated.  She frowned at Ren. “Is _that_ why you got sick in Mementos that one time?”

 

'That one time' had been way back in May, before Yusuke had awakened to Goemon and finally acknowledged the shitty way he was being treated.  Ryuji still immediately knew what she was talking about, because it had been memorable in a bad way. Ren had been getting short with responses and irritable, and Ryuji and Ann had been trying to figure out which one of them had pissed him off or if they’d both blame Morgana when Ren finally pulled the Monabus over, stumbled out, and started puking his guts out.  All backseat bickering had stopped as they scrambled out after their friend. Back then Ren seemed to have only been eating instant ramen and occasionally bread from school, so he hadn’t even had that much to throw up, but his body had sure tried to toss out anything and everything.

 

“I still can’t believe you tried to tell us you were okay after that,” Morgana grumbled.  Oh yeah, ‘I’m fine, I just need water’. They’d given him water. They had also yelled at him _so much_ for not telling them he was sick.  And then the shadows had started noticing them, so Ryuji had had to play getaway driver.  It had been the worst way to end an otherwise decent Mementos run.

 

“I _was_ okay, I just had to let the extra one go.  If you do it as soon as you notice them getting loud or restless, it doesn’t hurt at all.  I got sick because I was being stubborn about it.” Ren shrugged. “Don’t be me.”

 

Makoto shrugged, shaking her head.  “Why am I not surprised you’ve already made yourself sick at least once by being stubborn…?”

 

“If he wasn’t stubborn, none of us would be here,” Yusuke noted.

 

“Six months and the kid still hasn’t learned to keep his head down,” Futaba sighed, in a disturbingly impressive imitation of Sojiro.

 

Ren had started smirking, but it faltered as Futaba stroked her imaginary goatee at him.  She really had the Boss’s mannerisms down pat. “Okay, we’re leaving now.”

 

“Now hold on a minute. Let me explain--”

 

“Stop.  I have to look him in the face when I get back.”

 

There were snickers as everyone got up from their seats, gathering around Ren to go back to the entrance.  Ryuji was laughing himself as their leader triggered that little trick Morgana had shown them at the beginning: if you focused in a safe room where the ruler’s cognition was weak, you could introduce distortions of your own, including the idea that you were actually in a different safe room entirely.  Like teleporting. Ryuji wasn’t sure he could have explained how it worked, but it worked and made exploring Palaces way more convenient than it would have been otherwise. Morgana could be a little know-it-all, but he was pretty clever sometimes.

 

Teleporting in Okumura’s Palace was sort of anti-climactic; so much of the space port was the same steel gray that at first it didn’t feel like they had actually gone anywhere.  The monochrome scheme made any color more noticeable. There was a flash of blue, much too bright to be Makoto’s outfit and on the wrong side of him, too; Ryuji turned toward where he’d seen it out of the corner of his eye.

 

And then he yelled.  “Whoa!”

 

“Ow, Skull, don’t yell--"

 

“No, Queen--look!” he told her, skipping the apology for now because _this_ was a little more urgent.

 

“Hm?  Is there something there?”

 

Ryuji threw Haru a bewildered look--as flustered and clumsy as she’d been during her introduction, he’d never thought she was oblivious--and then shook his head, moving briskly towards the door that had first caught his attention and the two little girls by it, one studying a clipboard while the other had somehow clambered on top of the door and was idly kicking her legs.  The same size with the same foreign white-blond hair, they looked like twins; their mom must have done up their hair different so she could tell them apart more easily. It’d be cute if Ryuji wasn’t freaking out over the idea that they’d accidentally dragged _two kids_ into the metaverse.  They’d messed up a few times before, but this took the cake.  “Yo!” he called out. He hoped it sounded friendly enough, perfectly aware that he was a bleach blond wearing punk clothes and a skull mask while carrying a blunt weapon.  Shit. He probably looked and sounded like a creep, but they couldn’t just leave them alone. “You two okay?”

 

...Wait.  Even if they had dragged the kids in, where had the door come from?  It wasn’t even attached to anything.

 

“...Skull?” Ren called.  His voice sounded strange, like it was strained.  “Skull, wai--”

 

With another step toward the door, his friend’s voice fell quiet.  There was something strange about it besides just being a free-standing door; there was smoke billowing out from under it and a sound coming from it, not loud but persistent enough to smother out everything outside the immediate area.  A little like being underwater; it wasn’t that you couldn’t hear anything else, but the sound was warped and distant, and what you heard most was your heartbeat in your ears.  If it hadn’t been for the distortion, Ryuji might have realized Ren was telling him to stop.

 

He _did_ stop dead in his tracks when both girls looked at him in unison with piercing yellow eyes.  That wasn’t a normal eye color. Yellow eyes usually meant they were dealing with someone’s shadow.  “Uh…”

 

“So he can see us,” the twin on the ground said, turning her gaze back to her clipboard.

 

“Yeah, finally!” the girl on the door said.  “I was wondering if he ever would.”

 

Ryuji scowled, realizing he was not dealing with two possibly traumatized girls or violent shadows, but a pair of brats.  “I can _hear_ you guys, too.”

 

“We thought that might take you longer,” the first twin said, with the thinnest smile over the clipboard that told Ryuji that no, she’d expected him to hear them.  So instead of being ambushed by hostile shadows, he was just being sassed by small child shadows. Great. What was even going on here? Why was this in Okumura’s palace?

 

Wait…  the way no one else had reacted to them...and Ren had even _mentioned_ two girls, hadn’t he?  “Is this that whole Velvet Room thing?”

 

“Why don’t you come with us and see?  Our master has been expecting you.”

 

“Yeah, inmate!  You’ve kept him waiting long enough!”

 

 _Master?  Inmate?_  Ryuji did a double-take, looking over the door again--the door that had bars on it, like part of a gate or a prison cell--and the uniforms the girls wore, which now seemed less like a uniform from some hoity-toity private school and more like a prison guard’s uniform, especially when the one perched on the door was holding a baton.  But that didn’t make any sense. He’d swear he was paying attention when Ren had told him about the Velvet Room, and he was pretty sure ‘prison’ had not been in the description. Yeah, no. He wanted to talk to Ren about this before he started listening to creepy twin shadows. Especially if they were expecting him to be some kind of _inmate._  Ryuji shook his head, backing up.  “Y’know, I think I’m just going to pass on that invite--”

 

“Caroline,” clipboard-twin said.

 

“My pleasure!”

 

The door creaked open, and Ryuji didn’t even have time to yell when the girl on top of it launched herself in his direction.  She landed behind him, and before he could turn he felt her foot in his back, small but powerful enough to send him flying through the door, through an expanse of deep blue and dark, heavy chains.

 

When he opened his eyes, it was to a wall covered in blue, plush fabric. Velvet.  ...But the surface he was lying on was rock hard, and when he glanced around him, he saw how closely the walls pressed around him, the dingy toilet in one corner, and a cell door with a food grate at the one end.  Ryuji instantly knew with every part of his body that he didn’t want to be here. A woman was singing from somewhere, her voice filling the room, but even the rich, clear voice couldn’t sweep out the sheer feeling of oppression hanging in the air.

 

What the hell.

 

Seriously, _what the hell._

 

“Ah, girls.  Thank you. And now we see the newest wild card.  Hm, hm, hm…” The words were delivered by a sonorous voice so deep that when he broke into chuckling, Ryuji felt his skin crawl a little.  Felt like--whatever was laughing at him had to be huge, and he’d already gotten his butt kicked by a little girl. “Interesting.”

 

Okay.  Okay.  Focus.  Ignore the laughing, ignore the singing, ignore his skin crawling.  He was in a prison cell. He wanted out. Pretty simple problem with a pretty simple solution: break out and run.  He could bust down bars if he tried hard enough, right? He had Seiten Taisei with him.

 

“Stand up, Inmate!”

 

Where was his pipe, _had they taken his pipe--_ no, there it was, lying next to him.  Didn’t make sense, considering they shouldn’t let prisoners have weapons in a prison, but it was probably a cognition thing.  He didn’t care about the why right now. He just gripped his weapon tight in his hand, reassuring himself with its heft.

 

The quieter twin seemed to have noticed something was off; her tone was outright frosty when she spoke.  “You’re being incredibly insolent to our master. Drop that rebellious attitude and _get up_ \--”

 

“Since you asked _nicely_ ,” Ryuji ground out.  He rolled off the slab of a bed, ripping off his mask at the same time and focusing on the first obstacle of the door.  “ _Seiten Taisei!”_

 

Seiten Taisei was too big to be stuck in the narrow confines of the cell, its spiky mohawk scraping the ceiling and its pole jammed against the walls from one end to the other.  Ryuji quickly moved to one side as the dark thundercloud the persona rode on went wild, unleashing all its electric charge at the bars of the door and drowning out the distant song with intense crackling.  The twins moved back from the door too quickly to be touched by the attack, but they still looked pretty shocked, their eyes widening as the bars sparked violently before starting to melt. The second Seiten Taisei disappeared, Ryuji went straight for the weak point of the melted lock, bashing at it with all his strength.  One, two, three, four, bam bam bam and _open--_

 

Any triumph Ryuji felt over the twins’ surprise and his success at busting open the door evaporated the instant he realized there was no obvious exit to run to.  The room was just a circle of cells, with a desk in the middle being the only thing brightly lit. Sitting at the desk was an old man, with a nose long enough to poke someone’s eye out, just as Ren had said.  He was staring at Ryuji with the widest, creepiest smile the blond had ever seen on anyone. Not shocked, not afraid, just smiling, with one white-gloved hand curled under his chin.

 

Then the hand opened, met the other, and--oh.  He was applauding. Like Ryuji had simply done an interesting trick.

 

“A fine show of spirit.  I see why the Trickster found a companion in you,” the old man intoned.  How did such a shrunken guy have that deep a voice? His clapping slowed, and he added, “I don’t mind the redecoration, but be aware that violence toward any _person_ will be met with a swift execution.”

 

The old man said it so calmly, Ryuji was sure he meant it.  Like killing him wouldn’t make a difference in his day. Kind of funny Ren had focused on the nose and not that.  “Um. I just want to go,” he said. “So how do I get out of here?”

 

One of the cell doors rattled as he asked, and Ryuji looked over, hopeful that was an answer itself, but the door stayed closed.  It actually seemed the least likely to lead to a quick exit: there were two chains, huge, criss-crossed over it. “You will be able to leave when Caroline or Justine show you out,” the old man told him, gesturing to each girl as he said their names.  Both twins were glaring.

 

“Which means you’ll _listen_ to our master first,” the one who’d kicked him--Caroline--said.  “You should be grateful he’s not even punishing you for that stunt!”

 

“And you’re still wearing that rebellious garb….” the other one--Justine, then--muttered.

 

Ryuji looked down at himself, almost surprised he was still wearing his thief outfit.  It was so normal to him in the Metaverse, he’d half-expected she meant he was wearing something different.  “Okumura thinks everyone’s a threat. What else would I be wearing?”

 

“Only your body is in his Palace at the moment,” the old man informed him.  “The Velvet Room is its own entity. It exists between dream and reality, mind and matter… However, there are a few similarities.  The state of this room reflects the state of its guest’s heart. Perhaps _he_ finds you a threat.  More specifically, your presence here may be threatening to him.”

 

The opera singer hit a high note as the chained door rattled again.  Ryuji bit the inside of his cheek, hard, as the last high of his brief adrenaline rush drained away.  It sounded like the old man was saying something Ryuji really hoped he was misunderstanding. “Who’s the guest?”

 

The old man’s smile stayed fixed.  “I’m sure you know full well who I mean.  You share a strong bond.”

 

“That’s exactly why Joker would know I ain’t a threat!” Ryuji yelled.

 

“Watch your _tone,_ inmate,” Caroline snapped, flicking her wrist to extend her baton, the weapon crackling with electricity.

 

“Caroline,” the ‘master’ started. He paused when the chained door rattled a third time, insistently, and settled his beady eyes on it.  “As I recall, our inmate has already received our assistance today. Inform him that we will help with any legitimate requests, but there will be no tolerance for him interfering with another guest.”

 

“Hey, but I’m okay with him coming in if he wants.  I wouldn’t consider it interfering.” It would be appreciated right now.  For the backup dealing with these nutcases. And clearing up that Ryuji was not even remotely a threat to Ren.

 

“Be quiet,” Justine told him.  She wasn’t carrying a weapon like her sister, but the irritation was building in her eyes, and Ryuji had the feeling she’d be just as violent if pushed enough times.

 

Caroline hmphed before composing herself, giving an obedient if slightly sulky “Yes, Master,” to the old man.  She collapsed the baton and walked away...but instead of going through any door, she just vanished. Not exactly helpful to Ryuji, who hung his head.

 

“Come now.  Your conduct has made it quite clear that the Trickster did not tell you about the state of the Velvet Room.”  Despite the freaky rictus grin, the master’s tone sounded almost placating now. “He did not mean for you to know.  Yet it seems you were intended to learn, as here you are, a guest.”

 

The door stopped rattling.

 

Ryuji stared at the old man, scuffing one boot against the “V” design on the floor and gritting his teeth.  If the prison master was expecting a response, he wasn’t going to get it. Not when Ryuji didn’t have a good counter.  Ren had taken five or six months to tell him that he was even going to a room and not just spacing out at the wall. That plus the lackluster description of the room in comparison to the real thing made it pretty obvious he hadn’t wanted him to know, or anyone else for that matter.

 

A prison.  Maybe it was a step up from the tomb that Futaba’s Palace had been, but still, _a prison_ \--and the atmosphere in here actually managed to be worse than the pyramid had been.  Heavier, thicker. Maybe it was because Futaba’s cognition had included her room’s air conditioning.  Ryuji hoped that was the reason, but he didn’t think air conditioning would have eased the heaviness in his lungs.

 

Why was this the shape of Ren’s heart?  Yeah, the guy was under probation, and that was a big deal, but they had _just_ been laughing about how even that wasn’t enough to keep him down.  Guess that made them a bunch of idiots. Why hadn’t Ren asked any of them for help?  Why hadn’t he asked _Ryuji_ for help?  And here he’d been bugging Ren to help him out with stupid track team issues, trying to make things right with people he knew he was done with and not noticing the friend who actually cared about him was having trouble--

 

He was so fucking stupid.

 

“Let us start over,” the old man said. “I am Igor, the master of the Velvet Room.  This here is Justine. Caroline will be back shortly. What _has_ the Trickster told you of this place?”

 

Ryuji grimaced, but--fine.  Talk to the old man, get this over with, leave.  He just wanted to go home now. “Just...you guys help him with fusion.  Stuff like that.”

 

“Yes, we offer a variety of services to aid guests of the Velvet Room.  Now that you are a guest, that offer is extended to you as well. I am glad he told you that much at least; of all our services, fusion is the most vital.  I wish to give you a demonstration.”

 

“You have four personas with you,” Justine noted.  “Please select which two you’d like to be executed.”

 

“What the hell?  No!” Ryuji exclaimed.  He’d thought this place couldn’t get worse.  “I don’t want any of them killed!”

 

“Your personas are simply personalities within you,” Igor said.  “Thus, you will only be discarding old personalities to have them be reborn as new ones.  Hence, ‘execution’. There is no need to be alarmed.”

 

“If you give into fear, you’ll stop growing,” Justine said.

 

“And then you’ll stay weak, inmate,” Caroline chipped in from behind as she returned, circling to stand in front of him with her baton rested on her shoulder.

 

Igor chuckled.  “Caroline. I believe he has demonstrated he is different from the inmate.  Think of him as simply our visitor.”

 

Caroline cast a skeptical eye over Ryuji.  “He is different.. the inmate wouldn’t flinch from this."

 

“All right, _fine_ ,” Ryuji said.  “But I don’t know how this works, so help me out.”  She had a point: Ren did this all the time. It couldn’t be as bad as it sounded.

 

Justine showed him her clipboard.  Somehow she already had a list of his personas, and a chart of criss-crossing lines showing the possible combinations.  Going from the possibilities back to what they required confused him a little, so he focused on working from what personas he already had.

 

Seiten Taisei was not getting fused.  He was sure on that. Even though Ren did this, Ryuji still felt a trickle of uneasiness about the whole thing.  Maybe it didn’t make sense, but he was going to go with his gut. That left three personas and only three possibilities.  Actually, just two. Didn’t matter if he fused Shiisaa or Shiki-Ouji with Mothman, he’d get a persona called Ame-no-Uzume.  ...Oh, right, Ren had her right now, didn’t he? She could do ice, and heal people. It would be nice to be able to help out when someone was hurt.  He glanced at the other possibility, but it seemed way worse. Slime...yeah, no. He remembered that one from Kamoshida’s Palace.

 

“Um, her, I guess,” he said, pointing to the name.  Justine flipped the page on the clipboard over--apparently her clipboard was magic or something, because there was already a picture of what seemed to be the persona on the next page, and it moved.  Yusuke would go nuts to see the fluid movements of the goddess, suggestive of the dance she was famous for. Ryuji just snorted. It looked like he was getting a sexy ice lady today after all.

 

Justine quickly killed that small bit of humor.  “Will you execute Shiisaa or Shiki-Ouji?” the girl asked, her voice bland for the question.

 

“...dammit…”  Ryuji knew which of them was more useful, but he liked Shiisaa.  The persona had come to him. He wouldn’t know he could be a wild card if it hadn’t.  But...the ‘shock team’ comment had made it pretty obvious. It just wasn’t practical to keep when Seiten Taisei could already do the same things and better.  “Shiisaa.”

 

“Excellent,” Igor said.  “Now, this may be a bit gruesome.”  He snapped his fingers, and two guillotines appeared, towering and with blades wreathed in blue energy.

 

Oh.

 

‘Execution’ had been literal.  Execution was for real. “Wait,” Ryuji said.  Both Mothman and Shiisaa were already gone from his mind; he couldn’t feel them, he was still trying to find them in his head even though he could see them both, one behind each guillotine.  They were both slumped in defeat. Oh, man, he thought he’d felt bad about Mothman before. “ _Wait, goddammit--_ ”

 

“Would you like to try the blade yourself?” Justine asked him.

 

Ryuji shut the hell up.  He didn’t think he could have said something after that even if he’d tried; it was like every part of his brain was screaming with the sick terror he’d felt after Kamoshida had broken his leg.  He’d been pushing his luck with all of them, and they were only going to let him push so far.

 

The twins covered both Shiisaa and Mothman with cloth, Shiisaa tossing its head in an attempt to shake it off while Mothman kept trying to open its wings.  Two bundles of blue being forced under the guillotines, and they were still struggling as the blades rose up, stopped, shuddered and then plummeted back down--

 

Ryuji barely registered Ame-no-Uzume speaking to him and disappearing into his mask.  She took up a space in his mind, but there was still something empty.

 

This was not how he'd wanted to get a sexy ice lady.

 

Igor was saying something about power and a bond.  All of the words just passed through one ear and out the other.  None of this made sense.

 

“If you can't appreciate our master's generosity, there's no point in showing you the rest,” the cranky twin said, sounding disgusted.  “The inmate can explain.”

 

Oh, yeah, Ren had a _lot_ to explain.

 

“It is time for you to return.”

 

And suddenly, Ren was right in front of him.  “Skull?”

 

It took him about five seconds for him to register that he was back in the space port, back in his body.  The instant he realized out of the prison, his mouth opened. “What the fuck.” The only words he had for Ren right now.  “What the _fuck--?_ ”

 

“Ryuji, please,” and it was so hushed with terror that Ryuji cut off, remembering.  And realizing.

 

Ren saw him as a threat, and he was doing nothing but proving him right.  The others probably couldn’t see with the mask on, but Ren’s eyes were wide with fear.  He had a tight, uncertain expression that was like a flashback to April and a transfer student looking lost in the rain.  He’d known--Ren had known if Ryuji went in the Velvet Room, he’d flip out, and here he was, flipping out because he had no self-control, but he _really_ needed to yell.

 

“Guys?”

 

Not at Ren.  Not in front of Ann and everyone else.  He didn’t want to be a threat. _He wasn’t a threat_.

 

Dammit, he’d already raised his voice--no self-control at all, he was always too loud--he was always loud--he had to keep being loud, yeah, that was fine, okay, nothing wrong here, just Ryuji being Ryuji--

 

He forced a laugh.  “What the hell, man?” He grabbed Ren into a headlock, pulling him away from the others and making a show of messing up his wild hair so no one would see that both of them were on the verge of freaking out.  Pulled him away from Caroline and the door, because _why were they there_.  “That was--so effing cool!” he said.

 

You know.

 

Like a liar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you get a John Mulaney bit stuck in your head while writing a chapter and convince yourself that hey, it makes sense, there's definitely some lying going on here.
> 
> How the Velvet Room visit would go down kept flip-flopping on several factors (including if Ren would be present) and this...was probably the worst way. Sorry Ryuji.


End file.
